The ‘Queen of Melody’ Lata Mangeshkar passed away on Sunday. Her last rites were performed at Shivaji Park, Mumbai with full state honors. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and other celebs who paid their last respects to the mortal remains of the singing icon.
However, a photo from the funeral ceremony had gone viral in which SRK was seen offering dua alongside his manager Pooja Dadlani who joined hands in prayer.
While the picture received much love from the netizens, another moment in which SRK allegedly “spat” on Lata Mangeshkar’s mortal remains irked many netizens.
It sparked off a major controversy on social media. While some netizens strongly condemned SRK for the abhorrent act, there were others who rubbished the claims and stated that he was simply “blowing air.”Apparently, this gesture, in Islam, is known to ward off the evil spirits or ‘Satan.’
A fan on Twitter shared a clip of SRK’s movie My Name Is Khan. In the film, SRK plays a Muslim man with Kajol as his Hindu wife. While she does her morning aarti and showering blessings upon her son, SRK reads the morning namaz and blows air over the young boy to bless him. “He just blow air after reading Dua.. its part of the ritual! #LataMangeshkar #SRK” wrote a fan.
Actor Urmila Matondkar has also come out in support of actor Shah Rukh Khan after several people online blamed him for ‘spitting’ at Lata Mangeshkar’s funeral in Shivaji Park, Mumbai.
Urmila has said, “As a society, we have deteriorated so much that we think praying is spitting. You are talking about an actor who has represented the country on various international platforms. Politics has reached such low levels and it’s really sad.”
Urmila Matondkar also slammed the BJP’s Haryana functionary for questioning SRK. “This is not spitting. This is called offering up a prayer and blowing into the wind. This culture also represents India… Listen to this one song by India’s great daughter where she speaks of providing good sense to everyone and how each human being is God’s child.”